Declining enrollment seems to be a thing of the past at the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board.
Final numbers for the current school year are well above board projections with nearly 300 additional students in elementary and secondary schools.
Superintendent Terry Lyons says they're hoping it's the beginning of a new trend.
"We've projected, moving forward, that we would have some declining enrollment and the last three years we haven't seen it. I think we're turning the tide right now. Our excellent programming that we have going on, all of our academies going on, all the varied programs that we have going on and our results are great. People are noticing how well we're doing and people are putting their kids in our system."
He says another plus is a jump in the number of international students which has more than doubled to 112.
"We think that our programming is helping us drive student enrollment up. We've got some great score results. We're looking at forming partnerships and relationships with different communities, international students, and it's growing and we keep making more and more contacts."
Lyons adds, they were able to bring some new staff on board as well.
"We're extremely happy and we're looking forward to a great year with our staff. The last couple of years we've always had to have some staff that were on layoff and this year we have absolutely no staff layoffs. So it's all great and it's really nice to see somebody begin their career and get a start after waiting so long."
The board has hired 24 teachers and 24 support staff.
In addition, Lyons says more than 50 occasional teachers have been added to the roster as well with plans to hire 30 to 40 more.
Here's a rundown of 2017-18 enrollment numbers at the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board:
Elementary
- projection: 12,900
- actual: 13,101
Secondary
- projection: 7,275
- actual: 7,363